Thought it was time to scribble again!! Just a short one this time. 😁

I am already prepared for my mid October blog post which I myself believe will be quite revealing as it will focus in on my first year as a snap chatter whereas at the same time raising the predicament of whether to remain one or not!!!!

This post however will talk a little bit about my work! Don’t bore people with it too often and also some more of those funny conversations that happened over the last few days.

LET’S START WITH BIRMINGHAM

On Sunday evening I went to Shannon Airport to fly with Aer Lingus (on the smallest plane I have ever been on) to Birmingham where I was going, for the first time, attending a two day IOSH (health, safety and wellbeing) conference, all by myself!!

What an amazing two days! Sure moments of – I CANT TAKE NO MORE INFORMATION – but so many excellent speakers, fabulous participants and of course a Heineken or two to mingle with.

It is hard to single out one speaker, or one topic which was better than the others but one of my favourites (that I hadn’t seen or heard before) was the Health, Safety and Security Manager from Merlin Entertainments whom spoke about the Smiler crash (roller coaster ride in Alton Towers) in a very clear and open manner…… One thing he said that stuck with me and which I believe may be applied to life as well as work is that when in a crisis “run to manage it or someone else will manage it for you”.

Outside of lots of ideas and want to do’s within my career I also had some good me time and give myself a little pat on the back for going it alone!! Had some great food in some very nice restaurants, I toured the city and the Bullsring of course and had some CIDER which I would gladly go back for too!!!

AND THEN THE HAIR…….

A few times over the last few weeks I have got comments about (not my words) “the dramatic change in my looks” over the last few years. As late as today at work, when wearing a badge with my photo, someone said you might need to request a new one of those badges because you can’t be wearing someone else’s!!

It has also been brought home to me what one of those main changes are….. my hair!! I have this un-tamable mess that loves weather but does not love me!! But I have learned to appreciate its bushiness, frizziness, curls, kinks and temperament. However, I have never, ever had anyone come up to me and want to feel my hair….. until yesterday!!!

After facing straight into the winds of Ali my morning sleekness had turned to – how will I word this – a mess!! However, walking through Birmingham International, this young Italian man (totally stereotyping because of his accent) came up to me and said! Can I tell you about our skincare product. I very politely declined and he followed up with “Madam (oh there is that age thing again), would you mind if I asked you a question? I said of course not, ask away. Quoting the Italian

“I love your hair – can I feel it”…… WHAT????? I just laughed that one off nervously and politely answered, as reared by my mother, maybe another time…….

Then I thought this whole hair thing was over until a feedback form was filled out today after training delivery and one of the guys in the room wanted to answer (thankfully didn’t) to the question “What did you most like about the trainer”.  The answer….. “Her Hair”.

Is it time to go short again…….?????????

Have a great weekend 😄

PS. Got a new book solely because of the title and the chapter names!!!